Sonic Mania Adventures, Episode 2: Sonic and Tails

Sonic Mania Adventures, Episode 2: Sonic and Tails 

Original Release Date: April 30th

From the title on-down, the second episode of "Sonic Mania Adventures" makes it clear what the structure of this show is going to be. The first installment was called "Sonic Returns" and it was about, go figure, Sonic returning. This episode is called "Sonic and Tails" and, clearly enough, it is about reuniting this duo. From here in out, it's not too hard to realize how this series will progress. Just as every classic "Sonic" game introduced a new beloved character to the universe's ensemble, each episode of this cartoon will re-introduce those same characters. It serves a practical function for marketing "Sonic Mania Plus," which I'm sure Sega's money people where overjoyed about. The younger potential players of that game might not know some of these guys – or at least the Classic iterations of them – that well and this allows those hypothetic audience members to get to know them. For long-time fans, we are getting a chance to see these characters again, some of them for the first time in animation ever, and that is a treat in and of itself. Normally, you want to keep your viewers guessing but sometimes knowing what's around the corner and seeing it smoothly snap into place is immensely satisfying too. 

And "Sonic and Tails" doesn't waste any time getting to it either. Though the first installment ended with a comic book movie style teaser for future events, the show is clearly not patterning itself too closely after origin-heavy blockbuster cinema. We are not going to have to wait around through a feature length film to see Sonic and Tails meet, to hear the epic tale of how they first got together. Tails is hanging out on the beach and Sonic runs up to him and says "Yo." Obviously, this is a three minute YouTube short. It doesn't have time to run through all that tedious getting-to-know-you shit that CEOs love. Philosophically, however, this represents the show's clear determination to get right to the point and not worry about over-explaining everything. On the off chance you don't know who these two are, you can still figure it out immediately. A good example of showing and not telling in action. 

So anyway, yeah. Tails is tinkering with the Tornado on the beach, as Tailses are wont to to do. Sonic appears and shows him the doohickey Eggman dropped last time. The fox quickly figures out that it's some sort of Chaos Emerald radar, revealing that Eggman is drilling for the magical plot device nearby. Sonic races off after the baddie only to soundly get his butt kicked. That's when his bestest buddy offers his hand in help and the two team-up against evil once again, as the gods predicted. Eggman is far from defeated however and might have inadvertently been presented with his next wicked scheme... Meanwhile, another familiar face is lurking around this tropical island.

In the past, I have sometimes felt a bit of resistance to "Sonic" media that is on the goofier side. Over time, I've grown fond of "Boom" and the sillier "X" episodes but I still struggle to overcome that initial repulsion to slapstick stories with this cast. I suppose this is a natural result of growing up as a "SatAM" kid in a "Adventures of..." world. Blue hedgehogs are serious business. Us Sonic fans are adults and we can handle a little swearing, alright? Despite that built-in reluctance on my part, I have to say that "Sonic Mania Adventures" integrates its comedy and action very nicely. The smooth, high-energy animation surely plays a role in that. It's still satisfying to watch Sonic and Tails weave around and dodge Eggman's drilling machine. Or see them team up and smash it, which builds up nicely before playing as a fantastic visual gag.

I also continue to enjoy how much this series emphasizes that Sonic is, in fact, a vulnerable little guy that only needs a good whack to send his rings flying. We, in fact, see that exact scenario play out here. Eggman smacks him and he sails through the air, power rings trailing behind him. It's an excellent joke but it also continues to show that Sonic isn't an unstoppable hero that always easily outmatches Eggman based solely on the power of his speed. So much of modern nerdom is obsessed with power scaling and showcasing feats of strength that I think people sometimes lose sight of how stories like this are actually more compelling when, ya know, it seems like there's a chance the hero might not win every time. I have no doubt this is meant more as a callback to the Genesis era of the series. That "Mania Adventures" hasn't acknowledged the Power Rings before this point, using them strictly as a visual cue to show Sonic is taking a beating, makes that clearer. It's a small choice that I appreciate. 

"Sonic Mania," as an entire endeavor, was meant as an extended homage to the original video games, after all. "Sonic and Tails" truly doubles down on this by utilizing lots of recognizable sound effects from those games. Before Eggman's machine explodes, it makes the ramping up noise familiar to anyone who played "Sonic 2." The puttering helicopter noise Tails' propeller tails make or the wheel-screeching effect that plays when Sonic speeds off definitely scratch that sense of nostalgia for me. However, the episode doesn't drop these familiar notes in here simply to make old guys like me feel the warm and fuzzies. It helps sell the comedy too, functioning as evident exclamation points on the big jokes. The music is used similarly too, underlining when a situation feels tedious or ridiculous to our heroes. Naturally, the Hesse-isms are present too, in Sonic's cocky grin or half-open eyelid and Eggman's lips curling up and quivering. Little touches like these go such a long way in telling this story. 

The story told here is simple enough. Sonic runs off to meet his brainy friend for some brainy help. When the physical threat is detected, he tries to stop it personally, assuming his super speed and smashing abilities will be enough. Turns out it's not. That's when Tails lends a hand and, together, the two save the day. (At least for now.) That presents a clear arc for Sonic and a lesson that, perhaps, we all need to hear sometimes: No man is an island. You get by with a little help from your friends. Five keeps a neighborhood alive. So on and so forth. Having a bit of an ego is a cooked-in part of his personality but Sonic isn't treated like a cocky asshole who needs humbling because we still need to like him. Again, some of the brevity of these plot points is surely because Hesse and his team only have a few minutes to tell this entire narrative. However, making sure that each single installment of this program, no matter how short, still tells a whole story is a big reason why these little cartoons work so well for me. 

And work for me it does. This is another nearly perfect blast of classic "Sonic" fun that resonates deeply within my barren soul. Much as "Mania" itself gave the keys to super-fan Christian Whitehead and immediately produced the best game in the series in decades – much as how Archie letting this crazy guy who kept sending them a detailed plan on how he'd fix the comic actually fix the comic – the philosophy of handing these characters over to a life-long "Sonic" fan, go figured, produced some fantastically orchestrated art. Going to extreme lengths to appease the pickiest eaters in the fandom is not, in my opinion, the route to making a high-quality product. However, letting someone with an extremely strong vision – who has been thinking about this franchise, what does and doesn't make it work in their opinion, since they were kids – is the best solution sometimes. Anyway, "Sonic and Tails" rocks. [9/10]